Speaker of the House Jase Bolger watches the voting board as the Michigan House of Representatives votes on the Medicaid expansion bill Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2013 in the Capitol building in Lansing. In a bipartisan 75-32 vote, the House approved expanding the government health insurance program to almost a half-million Michigan residents within a few years, nearly halving the state’s uninsured. An estimated 320,000 are expected to be eligible in late March if the federal government OKs the plan. (AP Photo/Detroit News, Dale G. Young)

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to a measure that would make more low-income adults eligible for Medicaid, positioning the state to become the largest controlled by Republicans to support a key component of the new federal health care law.

In a bipartisan 75-32 vote, the House approved expanding the government health insurance program to almost a half-million Michigan residents within a few years, nearly halving the state’s uninsured. An estimated 320,000 are expected to be eligible in late March if the federal government OKs the plan.

They could have been covered as early as Jan. 1. However, the Senate — where just enough Republicans in a GOP supermajority joined Democrats to pass the bill last week after months of Login to read more